Today I wanted to talk about mindfulness art painting, meditating with your brush. So, how can you mediate while you are painting??! Have your tools ready, your paper or canvas, your brush, paint, marker and let you energy flow through your brush. Let yourself be in the precent and in the moment. Don’t think, plan or analyze too much. Just let go and then magic happens. Move with the brush as it’s dancing on the canvas or you paper, and let your creative mind do the work.
When you are finished you are probably wondering what you painted?! Well, the answer is that you painted what was inside of you, your feelings and emotions. Your creations is your marks and your drawings is all you. This is how your creativity is born. See, when you paint something you already know is totally different thing. You don’t let your creativity be active, because your are painting something you already know. You are not really learning something new. But when you let your imaginations go beyond, its where you get creative. Just let go and don’t overthink the painting because there is no right or wrong. There is no ugly.
Remember while painting, here and now. Don’t think about what happened couple of days ago or what will happen in near future. HERE AND NOW.
While we are painting, we all have our inner critic and it will tell you probably several times : Oh, that didn’t turn out good or oh that is ugly. But just tell your inner critic, no….. I’m doing just fine. Always remember that there is no errors and no mistakes. This comes from you and your inner self. When you relax and open up yourself your imagination explode with lots of creativity. Be the risk taker and do things in your painting that you normally wouldnt do…..And suddenly boom, there is your art. Beautiful as you. Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Love/T
The kitchen has always been the center of our home. It’s where we start our day in the morning, with cozy breakfast, with coffee or tea or maybe lit some candles. This is where I start my day, preparing the breakfast for my kids, we all sit together and talk about everything we will do during the day, getting prepared and organized… THAT beautiful moment of just talking…it’s where we hang out and socializes near the kitchen Island. I even usually blog in the kitchen too.
I think the kitchen is as important to you too as it’s is for me. I truly believe that it’s the heart of the home.
Now, please let me present to you our finished and ready kitchen, the one I blogged about renovating and then about the progress. It now has a timeless design and incredibly beautiful and smart design solutions. I really love how the kitchen turned out. Modern glamour yet cozy, personal and chic. The feeling is just unbeatable! The earthy colors and warmth was the key elements for me when I started the renovation. All details are in perfect harmony and I think it strikes the perfect balance between the stone and the wood.
Enjoy!
Love/T
The shades that are close to nature stands for comfort and softness. Beige shades give us calmness and peace in troubled times. You have probably, by now, seen it in every interior design magazine. You might have seen some green, especially mint green, purple and some lighter blue colors close to the colors of nature…
……Let’s go to the basic; back to nature and get ready for full relaxation. Find some peace and let go of fear and worry. Our home is where we recharge, reset and get our energy from. Always choose your colors very carefully because colors evokes emotions and moods. By understanding color theory you can create a place that fits your mood. It is also important to pay attention to the fact that each color has different meanings/effects on different people. The reasons for this are many and depends on factors such as gender, age, culture and life experiences. The truth is that all colors are beautiful and depending on each place they are to be used at, different colors can be the best choice because each color has a special psychological effect on people’s moods. Keep in mind that you are going to live with the color you have chosen for a long time.
Love/T
“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ” Oscar Wilde.
Many years ago I attended a course about flowers/colors and their meaning. How the scent and color of flowers make us feel. We learned that a simple bouquet creates a luxurious touch for everyday life and creates well-being and reduces stress, especially for the elderly… We learned color psychology and what connection it has to our emotions.
I’ll give you an example: imagine you walk into a room where the colors of the walls are black and mysterious. You can then quite immediately get a feel for the entire interior, the darkness, the cold, maybe it creates fear, makes you nervous, like a cloud comes over you. You can’t deny that the colors do something with us. Color actually, subconsciously, affects us every day – how we feel, how we behave towards ourselves and others around us. Colors really play an important role and they have an active presence in our lives. Colors allow us to understand the environment that we are in, unconsciously connect to the feelings they create and gain information about the spaces. You can ask any artist or designer if they believe that colors have psychological effects on human behavior and I believe that most of them will tell you that it does. I really do believe that positive colors can increase your motivation and creativity. If you are in a slump you can get out of it by surrounding yourself with the right colors.
Why I’m I talking colors with you?…… The reason why the red/black kitchen (see my previous blog about kitchen renovation) was removed was precisely because of the colors and what they do to you. Again, not because they are bad colors or ugly…..But because the red color quickly catches your attention, imagine just like a red Ferrari passing you by. You will see it! We very rarely forget when we saw the color red, because when we see the color it can indirectly cause stress and anxiety. Now I’m not saying that as soon as you see red, you will feel bad, NO. I mean that you can get the feeling. The red color stands for passion and strength. It creates a “party” atmosphere, probably why the red carpet is rolled out when the celebrities enter. The important thing is that you don’t have to much of the red so it doesn’t take over the interior and details of your home.
So, talking about the feelings colors can give you, you can divide them into warm and cold colors. The core warm colors are orange, red and yellow. On the opposite side you have the core cold colors, which are blue, green and purple. So let’s return to the analogy about the the room…. When you step into a room with a warm color, you will get a feeling that you are welcomed, almost like it embraces you. Because the warm colors make the room feel smaller, somehow closer, near and narrow. But when you choose cold tones for a room you immediately get a feeling that the room is bigger and “colder”.
With all that begin said, I want to wish you a colorful and amazing day. Sending you a virtual flower wherever you are.
(Do you think that color has an important impact on our emotions and behaviors) ?
I hope you had an amazing weekend, despite everything that is going on in the world right now. But don’t give up, we are almost there and we will all get vaccinated. Sending everyone a huge virtual hug, especially to those who has lost someone they know and love. Stay strong!!!
Now back to the kitchen renovation. It’s really progressing well, although you can’t really tell on the images but the hard part is done. We are now at the stage where we are waiting for the flooring to dry and the arrival of the cabinets. Well, we have changed everything but the biggest change is that the red cabinetry is gone. Let me also mention that the red kitchen was really of high quality, even the black kitchen island. The only “problem” was that the colors were very strong and that the red was taking over, like a glowing warning sign. So changing everything was a no-brainer. I have chosen everything very carefully and I just can’t wait to share the after pictures with you. I really love everything and every detail very very much!!!!
Love T
Today, I wanted to write about herbs/greens and the importance of eating them.
I have this friend that always laughs when he sees that I have all these herbs on my kitchen island. He calls me a sheep and gets really those big eyes every time he sees the amount of herbs I have at home. His behavior is understandable because he never grew up eating them. Me on the other hand grew up with a mum that introduced me to all the herbs and now I introduce them to my kids. I remember how proud my mum was every time she planted the herbs among a bunch of other things, like tomatoes and leek etc. Now I’m passing this on to my own kids. I always tell them that a herb garden is like the jewel of the garden, a constant source of aromas and flavors. Natures very own scents and beauty.
Herbs are really good ingredients that increases the nutritional value of your food. They are good for your blood as they help purify it. They are also rich in vitamins, minerals, water and fiber. Sometimes we tend to forget that many of our most common medicines come from the plant kingdom.
…..be like me, the sheep who eats a lots of herbs….
Love/T
What is you favorite color when it comes to kitchen? Do you like cold or warm tones??! Do you like to combine colors or different materials?
As you can see this kitchen is red, combined with, silver, black, white and grey. The flooring is black and some grey lines here and there. Now the previous owner loved the color combo. As I always say there is no bad taste, only different taste and opinion about what is beautiful and what is not depending on who is looking.
Now, I’m going to change everything about the kitchen area including the flooring and the lightening. So, where do we start?! It’s important to look at the entire floor plan of the apartment. How does it look and which rooms are closest to the kitchen. Maybe you want to make the kitchen bigger?!! In that case is there a wall that can be knocked out?!!
In this kitchen I have the opportunity to draw an island, if you have the same opportunity, do it!! Because the kitchen island offers so many benefits, more work space, extra storage and best of all a social place where you can gather your family and friends for different occasions.
The kitchen will be very personal and creative fully designed by me and then detailed with an architect. It will be rich in custom details. By the way; the custom built-in cabinets will be featured throughout the home. Special designed kitchen cabinets are the best place to make a unique investment in your project because the payoff is big both in feeling and value creation.
Stay tuned for the final result.
Love/T
My by far favorite tree is the Palm tree and my second favorite tree is the Olive tree. You could say that I’m crazy about them. We have actually a big Olive tree that we planted in our garden couple of years ago, which even has a name, and we have a lot of palm trees in different sizes. Of course these beautiful trees needs a consistently warm climate, just like me. I love the sun, the sand, the beach, the ocean, the ocean breeze that kisses your cheeks and the palm trees. All priceless! This is the way I associate the palm trees with myself; being where they are, in a warm and relaxing atmosphere. I just love looking up at those incredibly huge leaves and dream away.
I took some fotos (actually a lot ) from our recent trips to Dubai and I thought i’d share them with you. Enjoy them like I do.
Tell me about your favorite tree?!!!
Love/T
My beautiful reader,
First of all, thank you very much for your commitment and your writing to me during all these years. I’m all back again.
We have been moving all around the world, working, building up and meeting new people with new connections. It’s been such an amazing experience; new cultures, new environments, new traditions and new everything. I have been on and off very busy with new projects, but mostly I have been focusing on getting back to what I love the most: ART. When this hole thing with Corona virus started, and just continued and continued, I wanted to focus my thoughts on a special subject. And so I did. (Of course I didn’t only focus on one thing but you probably know what I mean.)
What I noticed while I painted is that I can express emotions and feelings that sometimes seems to be hard for people to vocalize, like in “the real world” (Quote by my kids, referring to the world outside internet and games)….Some can’t even write their feelings, their story, their words, their emotions…. Maybe sometimes just because they have a lot to say but they don’t know how to say it. I believe it’s not easy, it is hard. Through painting these feelings become like magic, they all come out in a form that everyone can understand and appreciate. At least for me…sometimes we don’t need words to say anything, it’s better to visualize them. This is how I paint feelings and how I tell you the story. This is also true for other artists, when you look at their paintings, you can see how the artist was feeling and what mood he or she was in when they created it. It really is ART, which as a form has no equals.
When I paint I feel calm, I have inner peace, I move myself into that feeling, that place where everything is about creation. Then my feelings draw the shapes on the painting. Painting is about releasing yourself and focusing. Very therapeutic and giving.
Sometimes we paint the most beautiful moments of our lives with beautiful memories. Sometimes we paint sorrow or grief.
You probably think “well… I can capture these moments with a camera?!!!” Yes and no…A photograph “just” captures a moment in time but when you paint you capture a scene, a beautiful memory, a face, lines and circles and beautiful emotions or sad ones.
For me no art is flawed, what came out is what you feel. Some people can consider what came out as mistakes and they erase and draw again, but for me you then create a new art piece. The feelings that helped create the original are reflected in the painting and I feel that true art shouldn’t be retouched. I compare it with events in our lives, things that happened that we regret or mistakes we made. We are the sum of all our experiences and would you then rather go back and erase them? Or isn’t it much better to learn from them?! Because these errors/mistakes are part of us. They don’t define us but they have helped shaped us, often for the better…it’s raw, naked, natural, authentic and frankly speaking, The truth! Therefore you will always see the pure raw paintings from me, as they were created in the moment.
Always be you and remind yourself that you are who you are because of events in your life; good or bad. Painting gives us the ability to be ourselves, to be free thinkers and explore all our creative sides. Promise yourself to never erase yourself and never forget who you are.
Love/T
For several years, Artilleriet has been looking for that special and perfect candlestick. They wanted something with high quality, one with classic shape that will last for generations. Of course they decided to design it themselves.
Each candlestick is carefully handmade and locally done in Sweden. They named it TOTEM and comes with different sizes.
These magical candlesticks are perfect for Christmas decorations or any holiday party.
Love/T
Style by Tanya 